Romanian Elevators

Hey hey hey!

So this week was one of those weeks where when I look back on it I am like "yep I for sure in Romania"

GUYS I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!!!! This week Sora Armstrong put her family history skills to work and tackled the names of Mercy and Sora Ghiman late family members to get them ready for the temple. I think she did around 45 names in all, and believe me doing work for people in Nigeria and Romania is not as easy as doing American names. At first it was hard on me because we were inside a lot. We tried getting branch members involved but nobody else could take care of it. But Sora Ghiman came on Wednesday night and we showed her the names and this smile lit across her face. She jumped up and hugged Sora Armstrong, when I saw that a thought entered into my mind that even though we weren't out on the streets talking to people we were still doing missionary work. Then Mercy came later on in the week and we showed her her names and she had her interview after the interview she burst out of the office and just grabbed us both and hugged us and just said how excited she was to go to the temple and how much it meant her to be able to take the names of her family members and again I felt the sweetest spirit. In our lesson this week Mercy bore testimony of the hope that the temple gives her. That when she is missing her family and wants to cry she thinks of how through the temple she will see them again. As we talked about the temple I got to feel a little bit of that special spirit that we feel there, I miss that spirit a lot. But after seeing the smiles on Sora Ghiman and Mercy's face as we printed out there family member's names I also just felt so grateful that I get to be here in this incredible country at such a pivotal time. I just want to say again what a whiz Sora Armstrong is at familysearch.org she is seriously such a champ and put with all my cabin fever grumpiness. Also my friends and family GO TO THE TEMPLE but also FIND NAMES to take with you. Sora Ghiman had to go all over Romania looking for her family names it is got to be easier for you guys in the states, make a call to your mom/grandma/great aunt ask them to tell you stories about your relatives and then just explain we believe we can be with our families FOREVER after this life, ask them for their permission to do service for their passed on loved ones in the temple. BE BOLD it will be worth it and Heavenly Father will soften the hearts of those that you work with.

Okay next miracle. We went and visited a member from Bacau that has just married a man that lives a little bit outside of Constanta when we got there her new granddaughter was there. We had planned on talking about the Book of Mormon w

ith the member but I had the feeling that we should teach the full restoration so we did! It was powerful and we committed her granddaughter and husband to reading the book together. MEMBERS are the key my friends!! MIracles are happening here people are being prepared and Heavenly Father will not let this work be stopped.

Now to explain my subject line. This week we all went to visit a less active member that has been coming a lot more often. The whole district went because we wanted to show how grateful we are for him. So the Soras headed to his tenth floor apartment in the lift and the elders decided to race us up the stairs. Let me just say I REALLY DO NOT LIKE Elevators but they made me get in so I did. We were all squished in and around the third floor the lift just STOPS. Sora Trebas and Sora Armstrong immediately start freaking out, Sora Trebas starts going off about all the worst case scenarios, (which is the worst possible thing to do in a situation like that) Sora Armstrong calls the elders, Sora Green is just in the corner like "Oh my gosh is this really happening?" and I start hitting all the buttons on the panel to no avail. The doors to the lift were just this wooden cupboard type doors so I opened them and it turns out we are right in the middle of the wall and the metal door leading to freedom. But in order to open the metal door there is this lever that normally the lift triggers as it arrives at the level but we were still about 4 feet below it. Sora Armstrong reaches her arm up to pull the lever and Sora Trebas is like "You are gonna cut your hand off!!!" but sora Armstrong risks it anyway and gets the lever door opens to our elders who are just standing there looking down at us. Elder Jardine has this dead serious look on his face and says "If you guys try to climb out you will get cut in half" I am like whatever how is that even a thing and I am so sick of everyone being so dramatic that I decide to shake things up so I jump and the lift kinda falls down a little bit but not really and everyone starts screaming at me. So then the Romanians come out of their apartments and they are like just climb out and I am like what they said so I climb out and everything is fine no one got cut in half and we had a great lesson with Fratele Vitel.

We had another fun experience with our friend Sora Corinna this week. She is a less active that says it is too hot to come to church and yes it is hot but not too hot to renew your baptismal covenants. Sora Corinna is very devoted to helping Sora Armstrong speak the language better so she tells me to be quiet in lessons and makes Sora Armstrong teach the whole thing. Sora Armstrong does teach the whole thing and does awesome at it. Recently Sora Corinna has come under the impression that I look Japanese so she started calling me Samurai. During lessons she will look at me and say hey samurai and then karate chop the air. This week during the lesson I started do my part of the lesson and she looks at me says "Be quiet Genghis" and does a karate chop I was so shocked she had called me Genghis Khan I just said "Poftim" Which means excuse me?! She started cracking up and would not stop laughing so now I am Genghis Khan. Sora Armstrong thinks it is hilarious too so she likes to call me that too.

One last miracle of the week familia Fotea came to Constanta!!!!!!! It was so good to see them. They are such a solid family. Being with them and the Constantinescus at the same time just made me so grateful for the caliber of people I get to be around here in Romania. Both Fratele Fotea and Presidentele Constantinescu are in the district presidency which is the equivalent to stake presidency here in the Bucuresti District and wow are they INCREDIBLE men. We talked about the Book of Mormon and they just got so excited. We talked about how the book encourages us to see the best in others, it is not only a book of doctrine but it can help us grow closer to Christ by teaching us how to be more like him. Fratele Fotea led the discussion being with their family just reminded me of my first couple of months in Romania. They are truly some of the strongest saints.... ever!

Life is good, I LOVE being a missionary, I LOVE this gospel, and I LOVE you all!

Sora Genghis Khan